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Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
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To God’s holy people in Colossae, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ: Grace and peace to you from God our Father.
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Thanksgiving and Prayer
We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,
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because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people—
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You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf,
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And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.
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But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation—
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Paul’s Labor for the Church
Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church.
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To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
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He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ.
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To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.
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My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ,
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For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit and delight to see how disciplined you are and how firm your faith in Christ is.
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Spiritual Fullness in Christ
So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him,
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See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.
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For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form,
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and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.
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In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ,
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When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins,
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These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.
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They have lost connection with the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.
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Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules:
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Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.
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Living as Those Made Alive in Christ
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
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For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
